Abbas wins landslide victory

Mahmoud Abbas today began his work as Yasser Arafat's successor after winning a landslide victory in the Palestinian presidential election.

The militant group Hamas, which boycotted the elections along with another militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it could work with Mr Abbas, but questioned his real margin of victory and complained of electoral irregularities.

Final results announced today gave Mr Abbas 62% of the vote. His nearest rival, Mustafa Barghouti, had 19% of the vote and conceded defeat.

Aides of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said he planned to meet Mr Abbas soon and that Israel planned to release some of the more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Mr Abbas has promised to seek peace with Israel and analysts said his victory held out the promise of a breakthrough in the Middle East peace process after four decades of rule by Mr Arafat, who died on November 11.

However, the new Palestinian leader, who is expected to be inaugurated on Wednesday, has the tough task of reining in powerful armed groups without losing their backing. Commentators said his political capital would be damaged by any new terror attack on Israel.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Abbas admitted he faced a difficult job but reiterated that he would not go after militants, saying he wanted to give those wanted by Israel "a life of dignity". Mr Abbas said: "I present this victory to the soul of Yasser Arafat and present it to our people and to our martyrs."

Most militant groups have indicated they are willing to halt attacks against Israel, although the Lebanese Hizbullah guerrillas, who fund some of the Palestinian militants, are trying to sabotage truce attempts. Yesterday Hizbullah carried out a cross-border attack, setting off an exchange that resulted in the death of an Israeli soldier, a French UN observer and a militant fighter.

The US president, George Bush, praised the election as an "historic" step to statehood and offered Mr Abbas his help in a new push for peace, while calling on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinians.

Israel's deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said a Palestinian crackdown on militants was a precondition for any progress in the peace process, including consulting with the Palestinians on the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer.

Meanwhile today, Mr Sharon asked the Israeli parliament to ratify the new government he has put together to carry out his plan to pull out the almost 9,000 Jewish settlers who live in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Sharon, who lost his parliamentary majority six months ago, was expected to win approval but it was not automatic and a tense no-confidence vote was expected after the ratification debate.

Thirteen members of Mr Sharon's Likud party who are opposed to the pullout plan have threatened to vote against the new government, which includes the moderate Labour party, with its leader, Shimon Peres, as Sharon's second vice-prime minister, alongside Mr Olmert of Likud.

The new team includes parties with 66 of the 120 seats, but if the 13 Likud rebels vote against it, the majority disappears. In that case, Mr Sharon would have to depend on the abstentions of leftist opposition parties to survive no-confidence votes.

Mr Sharon warned the rebels in a party meeting ahead of the vote that they would bring a "disaster" on the country if they prevented the formation of the new coalition and forced early elections.

Mr Barghouti praised the process as a victory for Palestinian democracy, although earlier he had complained that thousands had been unable to vote.

Officials said almost 70% of 1.1 million registered voters cast ballots in the first presidential vote in nine years, which was witnessed by hundreds of foreign observers, including former US president Jimmy Carter.